The Midwest

EllieLindsey

Introduction

There are 10 states in the Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.

• Indiana is the only state in the Midwest that is not a Native American word.

• The Midwest was a land of promise with good soil to the first pioneers, forests full of trees, and lakes full of fish.

People and History • Levi Coffin was sometimes called

“the president of the Underground Railroad.”

• Illinois now calls it self “Land of Lincoln.”

• The Homestead Act allowed settlers to claim 160 acres of land, as long as they built a house there, planted crops, and lived there for five years.

• The Louisiana Purchase was when the United States bought the Louisiana territory from France. It included states that later became known as Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska.

Land in the Area • In the winter it is very snowy and

in the summer there can be heat waves and droughts.

• The Mississippi River is the backbone of the west. It assists with buying and selling goods. It is also good for recreation (fun), fishing, and wildlife.

• The Great Lakes are Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Superior.

• The snowiest part of the Midwest is the upper Peninsula of Michigan. In an average winter, this area gets 9 feet 2 inches of snow.

Animals and Plants • Animals: Bats, bison, falcons, white-

tailed deer, fish, pigeons, and starlings.• Plants: prairie grasses, tall grasses,

mosses, oak trees, yellow pimpernel and false foxglove.

• There are woodlands and prairies in the Midwest. The woodlands are dominated by trees and are found by rivers, streams and other sources of water

• In the 1900s there were 300,000 white-tailed deer. Now there are more than 30 million white –tailed deer.

Cities and Towns• Cities: Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee,

Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio,

• In 1871 a fire started in Chicago. The fire burned 18,000 buildings, killed 300 people, and left almost 100,000 residents (one-third of the city’s population) homeless.

• Although Chicago gets a lot of attention, there are a lot of other exciting towns in the Midwest. For example, Madison which is the capital of Wisconsin, is called “The City of Four Lakes.” It is built on a isthmus

• The Sears Tower is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world. It rises above the city of Chicago. It is 1,450 feet tall. This is 110 stories tall. It is an entire mini-city with stores, apartments, and all sorts of fun activities to do.

Rural Life • The Iowa State Fair is one of the

nations oldest and largest state fairs, which started in 1854.

• Farming tractors are a big investment. One tractor can cost $150,000! These tractors are important to the success of the farming in the area.

• Iowa is the nation’s largest pig producer.

• Wisconsin produces 35% of all the cheese made in the USA, which is more than any other state.

Getting Around• The Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan’s Lower

Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula. It opened in the year of 1957. Ever since then, more than 100 million vehicles have crossed it. It goes five miles across open water and is one of the world’s largest suspension bridges.

• Whether you go by boat, train, car, or plane , the Midwest is an easy place to travel. The Midwest’s central location in the USA makes it easy to get from here to almost anywhere else in the country

• The best way to see the Midwest is by car. The many interstate highways, state highways, and local roads that crisscross the region make it possible to travel from Ohio to Nebraska in a couple of days . This same trip would have taken early settlers months to complete.

• For nearly 200 years , barges have been in use on the Mississippi River. It is cheaper to ship goods by barges than by freight trains or semi-trailers. They are held together with steel cables and pushed by towboats.

Work in the Area• A lot of the food sold in the US is grown,

produced, or packed in the Midwest.• A lot of steel that was used to build the

railroads and skyscrapers throughout the US was mined and milled in the Midwest.

• There are many different kinds of jobs in the Midwest that keep the cities going. Kansas leads the nation in building airplanes airplanes for businesses and military use.

• Oprah Winfrey was the first African-American woman to become a billionaire. She uses her fame and wealth to help people around the world who are less fortunate.

Free Time

• Some foods that people eat or grow in the Midwest are Chicago style pizza, spinach milkshakes, sausages, hot dogs , popcorn, chili, and cheese.

• Some sports that are played in the Midwest are boating, biking skiing, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and racecar driving. There is also swimming and fishing.

• Every winter since 1973, Wisconsin hosts the Birkebeiner Cross Country Ski Marathon. More than 8,000 skiers from all over the world compete in different races and lengths over three days. It is North America’s largest Cross-Country ski race.

• Every September, Chesterton Indiana holds an enormous Wizard of Oz festival . Since 1926, Traverse City, Michigan has a hosted the National Cherry festival.

• The first ice cream cone was probably invented at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. An ice cream vender and a waffle salesman teamed up to create the first ice cream cone.

• Americans eat 17 billion quarts of popcorn each year. Most of it comes from the Midwest with Indiana and Nebraska producing the most!

An Amazing Region • We learned a lot while studying the Midwest.

The Midwest has places to visit, a rich history, different cultures, a lot of businesses, and a big landscape.

• Many famous television broadcasters and show hosts come from the Midwest such as David Letterman, Tom Brokaw, Johnny Carson, Oprah Winfrey and lots more! Also, Abraham Lincoln lived in Illinois, that’s why its called the Land of Lincoln.

• We learned about many important places such as the Sears Tower, the Mackinack Bridge, the Cherry Spoon Bridge, The Underground Railroad, and the Mississippi River.

Works Cited

• Curry, Elizabeth and Judson. Regions of the United States: The Midwest: Chicago, Illinois: Raintree, 2006.